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Monday, January 23, 2017

Book Review, Guest Post & Giveaway - The Devil's Daughter by Katee Robert

Eden is the daughter of a cult leader in Clear Springs. Her mother, Martha, has a loyal group of followers, but Eden isn't one of them. After what she went through as a child at Elysia in the name of her mother's beliefs she left town as soon as she was able to and never came back. Eden works for the FBI and when a teenage girl from her hometown is murdered and another one is missing she has no choice but to offer her assistance.

Eden isn't officially working for the FBI on this case, so she has to help Zach, the local sheriff, as a civilian. She's the only one who has access to Elysia. Zach knows Eden has to spend time at the place of her childhood terrors to gather information, but he isn't happy with the arrangement. However, it seems they have no choice if they want to solve the murder before there will be more victims. Will they be able to stop the evil that seems to be coming from Elysia?

The Devil's Daughter is an impressive story. Eden's mother is the leader of Elysia, which is a cult with plenty of loyal followers. Many teenagers are curious and visit the cult at least once, so it isn't a surprise that there's a link between what's happening and Elysia. Martha has power in spades and Eden is still afraid of her mother and what she can do. I immediately found that intriguing. The relationship between mother and daughter is tense and from Eden's side it's full with loathing. Katee Robert skillfully uses those feelings to paint a clear picture of both the cult and its leader. Martha surrounds herself with strong and ruthless men. She uses them as a shield and it's nearly impossible to discover any of her secrets. She has the cult under her thumb and rules it effortlessly. Eden doesn't stop trying to infiltrate into her mother's world while being adamant she doesn't want to be a part of it. She is a noble woman and she willingly puts herself at risk over and over again to save the lives of others. The scenes about the cult kept me on the edge of my seat, it's a terrible place and a great setting for a creepy story.

Katee Robert's writing flows easily. Her detailed descriptions gripped me from the start and I read The Devil's Daughter in one sitting. It's a compelling story that I couldn't put down. There are many surprising twists and turns and the ending is fitting and just as twisted as the rest of the story. There's a little romance and there are a lot of frightening events, which is exactly the way I like a scary mysterious story to be. The Devil's Daughter is a fantastic terrifying story.

Advice

The Devil's Daughter is a great choice for readers who like creepy thrillers.

I think cults are so fascinating because the idea that a person can control a large number of followers and get them to act in a way that is counterintuitive to how “normal” people act… Well, it’s downright terrifying. When I first started doing research for this, I had cults like the Jonestown one and Charles Manson’s followers in mind. I mean, it’s hard to wrap your mind around--following a leader into either murder or suicide.

It turns out, it’s not that hard to rope people in.

I read a lot of books about deprogramming cult followers, and the techniques cults use to recruit. It’s more than a little scary, because it is so easy to get people to join up by pushing a few key buttons (each person’s buttons are different, but recruiters are trained in picking them up on the fly). It’s not just “weak willed” folk who watch too much in the way to television preachers and sign away every penny they own. It’s not just runaways who have nowhere else to go. Most cult members started out as everyday people.

Delving into that--and into what kind of person it takes to start and run a cult--was the basis for The Devil’s Daughter. My heroine, Eden, is the daughter of the local cult leader, so she was ground zero for watching her mother manipulate the people around her. It was really intense examining the kind of marks an upbringing like that would leave one someone--especially when they’re forced to face their past.

About Katee Robert

New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Katee Robert learned to tell her stories at her grandpa’s knee. She found romance novels at age twelve and it changed her life. When not writing sexy contemporary and speculative fiction romance novels, she spends her time playing imaginary games with her wee ones, driving her husband batty with what-if questions, and planning for the inevitable zombie apocalypse.